“For the time being, that isn’t
visible because the construction season isn’t on yet, but the Republika Srpska
will be a big construction site in 2013. It will be a way of responding to the
global crisis and challenges. I’m certain that it will preserve and strengthen
our economic dynamics and improve our chances for new jobs and stable wages,”
Dodik said in an interview with Srna.
In that respect, he says, Srpska is
some kind of a curiosity because it secured more than €2 billion worth of safe
investments, which are in different stages of execution. “Some of them are
already underway, and some are at the very beginning, like the construction of
the Banja Luka-Doboj motorway, Stanari, Ugljevik III, Gornji Horizonti power
plants, and many other projects. We will keep our cooperation with the German
RWE and Italians on the Drina River. We wish to intensify the projects to
attract a significant number of people to work on them,” explained the Srpska
President.
Dodik is certain that investments will
dominate 2013. “Success to be achieved in this year and the years to come is to
maintain the level of our economic activity at the current levels and not allow
us to go down, since the whole world is going down. If we maintain that level
of activity, we will make it,” he said.
Dodik thinks this year will not be a
drought year or decimate agricultural production, like it happened in 2012, and
believes that it will be a good and fertile year and allow agriculture to
flourish.
The salary cuts are not permanent and
salaries will be restored to their previous values when that becomes possible,
said Dodik, commenting on the announced strike of workers paid by the
government budget. “Since 2006, we have increased salaries by nearly 100
percent, and a 10% cut has now caused turmoil, which is a bit absurd. They
didn’t object when teachers and police officers had 300-400-mark salaries, but
now they don’t want to understand the social trends in the region and in
economy,” said Dodik.
The Srpska President says that public
protests, if conducted in line with the law, are no problem at all. He believes
that strike is okay if it means fighting for social status, but that it is a
completely different thing if it is a political struggle.
“Life is difficult in the Republika
Srpska, but Srpska is safe and stable with the policy pursued,” he said, adding
that he is “proud that Srpska managed to preserve its political strength and
stability in 2012, extended its international influence and, above all, built
the trust of citizens in its ability to function.”
Elaborating on the information that
money is coming in Srpska to prepare “some sort of a spring” in order to have
him removed and the Republika Srpska deprived of all its competences, Dodik
said: “It is obvious that certain Western embassies are providing financial
support to the non-governmental sector and directly paying the Republika Srpska
media.” To support these claims, Dodik said that certain media reports from his
presidential annual press conference ran shorter than the Centres for Civic
Initiatives press conference.
He claims there are attempts to
exploit the social and economic problems to destabilise the situation in terms
of politics and institutions. “That’s why, the leading opposition party, the
Serbian Democratic Party (SDS), the party floundering in all forms of crime and
corruption, which was widely known for its foul dealings, is now trying to
portray itself as the major fighter against crime and corruption,” Dodik said
and called on SDS leader Mladen Bosić to report any wrongdoings to the
competent bodies, hold a press conference and do all it takes in that respect,
instead of doing it just in principle.
Dodik says the cooperation between the
SDS and Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD) on the state level
seems to be stable, but that “a stable cooperation on the state level implies a
stable Srpska,” adding that “the Republika Srpska would fail very quickly and
become unstable if it were taken over by the parties imposing themselves right
now, such as the SDS, the Party of Democratic Progress (PDP) in particular, not
to mention the Democratic Party leader Dragan Čavić,” he said.
The President of Srpska asserts that
the initiatives such as “March 1” or the Bosniak congress are no coincidence,
and neither is the radicalisation of the Party of Democratic Action (SDA)’s
politics, saying that those initiatives represent the achievement of the
Bosniak policy and genuine policy of Alija Izetbegović, the goal of which is to
conquer the entire Bosnia and Herzegovina.
“We will prevent that, but it would be
dangerous to go on an adventure with the people like SDS leader Mladen Bosić.
We will oppose such actions and pass all the necessary regulations and order
certain actions. Our citizens have no reason to worry. I’m ready to go all the
way to fight this issue,” he said.
When it comes to the reconstruction of
the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Dodik submits that it does not imply
a reconstruction of Bosnia and Herzegovina. “Thanks to the bad leaders of the
Republika Srpska, it so happened through the years that anything bad in the Federation
of BiH became a reform and was implemented on the state level. We’ve managed to
stop that and exposed the problems in that entity, that is, the problem of its
functioning. Then they realised they needed to do something,” said Dodik.
Concluding his interview with Srna,
the RS President underlined that the leaders of Srpska and Serbia demonstrated
the ability to build mutual relations in the best way possible. “Those
relations have been good and very eventful and will be like that in the future.
As for Serbia’s relations with Srpska, they are based on the Agreement on
Special and Parallel Relations,” said Dodik.
(Srna/Frontal)
